This news may sound a bit strange or awkward but new research presented at the Society for Neuroscience last Wednesday at a press conference showed that auditory stimulation with white noise or low pitch sounds or simply caressing the whiskers of a rat can protect the brain from stroke. The research lead by Ron Frostig from the University of California at Irvine presented the results in the form of Powerpoint slides.
In brief, his lab group has previously shown that touching the whiskers of rats within 2 hours after stroke using the middle occlusion artery model can robustly protect the rats completely from brain necrosis due to a lack of oxygen following stroke. Interestingly, low frequency sounds (less than 5 hz) can somehow increase blood flow to the cortical regions of the brain and completely protected the brain from stroke in 6 of 10 animals. The other animals sustained very small injuries of less than 5.0 mm in radius at an area on the temporal lobe near the auditory cortex. What intrigued the scientists is the fact that tactile stimulation of the whiskers of the rat has more of a stronger neuroprotective effect than auditory stimulation. The authors claimed to follow more on these findings.
This research has great implications for finding a new supplementary stroke therapy. Stroke is the third leading cause of death and mortality in the United States and the Western Pennsylvania region with over 160,000 deaths a year. Stroke unleashes a very dangerous series of events that leads to massive ischemia and necrosis around the central infarct region in humans. If left untreated for more than 4 hours, a serious stroke can be lethal or severely impair motor and cognitive function. A patient who is successfully taken to a hospital within a 4 hour critical time frame will immediately receive tissue plasminogen activator (clot buster drug) to remove any potential clots around the circle of Willis (major blood brain portals) or any other cerebral arteries and can lead to a good prognosis. On the other hand, the research presented two days ago is promising in that a patient with an onset of stroke may listen to certain soundwaves, music or even white noise while receiving tactile stimulation on the face during prior to being treated at a hospital as a therapeutic complement. Much more research is needed to understand what type of stimulation is more protective or whether both auditory or sensory stimulation on the face can produce additive neuroprotective benefits.
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